So How Long Can You Tolerate The Nasty Airliners ?

So, first of all let me tell you it took four years for me to write this down. The reason is nothing  but i ignored it to my best. But recently again disputes have started from the national carrier as well as the airport officials. You might have heard the news a week ago that the renowned South Indian singer M Jayachandran was ill treated when he stood up for his rights at Karipur International airport.

He also stated that pravasi or the Indians residing in the Gulf countries are more the victims to this harassment by these airliners. What if it be our own national carrier ?! Pretty shame.

Ohkay ! The story begins like this. Me along with my family was travelling back to our hometown Kochi, Kerala for the summer holidays. We booked Air India due to unavailability of tickets in other carriers. As you know the airline is the king of delays ! So we try our maximum not to book them. So, this time we had no choice, we went forward with it. Hopefully thinking we would have a safe and a comfortable journey.

We had our flight scheduled at 7:50 am in the morning. Got up a bit early like 4:00 am, did our routines and packed the remaining bags and by 5 quarters started the journey to King Fahad International airport which is like about 50 mins travel from home.

Driveway to Airport.

We arrived on time, checked in our baggage’s and took our boarding pass.

And the first thing we did was to check the flight information screen. Yeah ! Flight on time.

Entrance to airport.

So we did our emigration processes and waited at the terminal.

Time flew and it was 8:10 am, suddenly the “on-time” sign changed to “delay”. Sheeeesh ! we kept our hands on forehead and sat with a sigh.

Endless waiting !

God this is never gonna make it on time !.

After an hour the board showed three hours delay. Thanks to the free WiFi network, I connected my then Nokia touch express music onto it and kept myself busy. Me and my sister kept sharing it in turns. Well three hours  past, its 11:30 am still no sign of the aircraft. I started feeling hungry, we actually had our breakfast early early morning. So we went to the Coffee talk and had something light to keep our tummies filled.

Its now 12 in the noon. OK, now we don’t see a sign on the information board. No airport officials at the gates too ! Now the passengers got impatient and started inquiring. The airport officials showed no response at all. They said “we are not getting any information from the airline staffs” as simple as that.

it’s 2:00 pm ! what about lunch ?! i was literally starving as hell ! They were so many families among passengers including infants.  After a lot of pleading the airline staffs showed up. They said they will provide us Lunch within an hour. At last by 3:00 PM we had our worst lunch ever !! stale chapattis and curries which sucked to the core !

Nevertheless, we had them. Now it’s 5:00 PM, imagine we were supposed to go on the 8:00 am flight ! and now it’s 5:00 PM !! i am already on the edge of my tolerance because i had nothing to do except keep staring at the Arabic MBC Channel which kept running all day long.

Again rushed to the Coffee Talk for a cup of cuppa chino.

Love you coffee talk . You saved my day !

Stranded AI passengers.

Now that passengers started yelling and shouting at the officers demanding to meet the Airline manager. Then came the manager, and he said that the aircraft is facing some technical issues that in substitution to that another aircraft has been sent from Delhi !

Delhi ?! I was wonder struck, it takes around four and half hours for that aircraft to come. I could not even wait a minute longer in that airport.

It’s 8:00 pm, All our cell batteries started draining. To our horror the charging points require an adapter to convert into two pin and we did not have one. Done with it ! No cells and Laptops too. Keep staring at that television or sleep on the couches. When it was 10:00 pm !! They said the flight is not going to make it today. Wow ! wonderful i said to myself.

Why the heck can’t these people tell earlier. Instead they said they would take us to a hotel for the night.

But there is a rule in the Kingdom. Those who are travelling in exit visa will not be able to re-enter the country at any cause. We were travelling on Exit- Re entry visa. So that does not imply to us. But !! a family with a toddler and months old infant was travelling on Exit visa.

The airline did not show any courtesy towards them instead they allotted the prayer room for them to stay without bed and other facilities to spend the night with just carpets spread all over the floor.

We where taken to the SAPTCO bus waiting outside the airport.

SAPTCO

We left the airport and reached the hotel by 10:00 pm. We where made to stay at the Al-Hamra Golden Tulip hotel in Ad Dammam.

Flickr Image

We checked in at the reception, handed over our passports at the reception and went to our rooms.

Rooms were Cozy and warm, but all we wanted was to go home! Dead tired.

We had dinner at the restaurant down stairs.

Multi Cuisine Restaurant

Jumped over the beds and went onto a deep sleep.

But at 3 am in the morning, the phone rang and we were asked to report at the reception as our flight will be in an hour, by 5:00 AM. Woohooo ! But was sleepy has hell.

Way back to airport early morning!

Reached the airport and boarded the aircraft and flew !!

Hmmm..the interior

We touched down at Calicut (Karipur) International airport. Actually the passenger to Cochin as to remain on board and the aircraft was disembarking the passengers to Calicut. We waited for the flight to take-off. Then we noticed that it was getting hotter inside the carrier. It looks like the engines is turned off. Passengers started to inquire and came to now that the pilots were on strike that they are not willing to fly the aircraft unless they are paid the remaining salary ! The air hostess gave a frown look to us. Okay ! what on earth should the passenger do ? Why should they suffer for this ?

Karipur Airport

We were made to get down the aircraft. We haven’t had breakfast. The Karipur staffs came with a bread sandwich which was totally cold. The children started crying they haven’t had a proper food for a day now. Know Passengers started arguing with the staffs and and they said they will arrange a bus to Kochin without compensation when we paid the air fare till Kochin. No way !! Even the airport officials in Karipur were befriending them and they behaved in a mean full manner. They did even consider the female travelers as well. Finally, some passengers entered the managers room and caught his collar (that is what i heard) and suddenly from no where the flights were arranged.

Kochin Airport (Illustrative Pic)

Finally, we landed at Kochin around 12 in the noon. Coming to an end to this tragic travel. We were welcomed by a group of medias to explain to them about the Airline experience, well whatever is done they remain the same !!

Well, this was the worst air travel i ever had in my entire life. AI plays cheap tactics to earn profits, it’s not that they can’t find a solution. They don’t try to find a solution. I cannot say their long haul flight to US ans UK are similar to this but the Middle East sector sucks !

At least the staffs have to learn hospitality before they work in a hospitality sector. Well, made a decision to never ever opt this again !

Fingers Crossed !

 

Have you had similar experiences ? Share it on the comments below 🙂

Thanks for reading.

Love Gokul.

 

 

 

The Power Of Language

“English the universal language has the power more than you think; it can shut anyone’s mouth”

Written By- Gokul Vijayan

The long wait for the flight is about to get over after three hours of wait at the terminal of Sharjah International airport .I am accompanied with my sister to catch our transit flight to Ad Dammam,Although the journey from Kochin to Sharjah was perfectly comfortable. We never knew that we would witness such a situation on board of our next aircraft.

Do you actually believe that racism still exist in the world? And that too among new generation? Well my article will give you answer to that.

The airport ground staffs at the entrance of Aero bridge opened the doors signalling it’s time to board the aircraft. We took our hand baggage’s and strolled down the bridge in a hurry to board the aircraft. We were seated at the fifth row, my sister took the window seat and I sat to the adjacent seat to her. A super clean aircraft guess it’s a new addition to the fleets of Air Arabia.Perhaps,I noticed that the entire aircraft was filled with Arabs predominantly the youngsters who would be probably pursuing their college studies in universities across the Emirates. We both were the only ones who seemed to be an expatriate on board.

Lot of chattering happening on the aircraft, you know how Arabs speak. They generally speak loudly that there nicest words sound to be yelling to the ears of other nationalities although they don’t mean too. There we go, adding to the final passengers to the aircraft a group of three men who could belong to the East Asian ethnicity boarded the aircraft.They might be working as laborers in contracting companies because their outlook showed it all.This was the instance when we witnessed what racism meant in the real world.

There were a group of young Arab ladies sitting on the front seats. They immediately took a piece of cloth and wrapped there face with it and starting yelling and giggling “rahiya” which eventually means “smell”. They meant that these poor people smelled like a skunk and started to burst into laughter. Their illustrations took the notice of the entire people on board even the cabin crews. But no one raised their voiced against this verbal discrimination neither do they, since they were very poor in the language and they feared speaking out. They felled incredibly bad in front of others that even we was uncomfortable watching it. They kept their anger towards themselves and sat silently in the aircraft throughout the entire journey listening to the young ladies verbal abuse. We tried to get our sights away from it, but our inner self did not allow us maybe because we too belonged to the South Asian ethnicity? How can we simply sit listening to this?

My sister told me” we need to speak up for that poor fellows”. And I told her “definitely, we should but we must consider that we are travelling alone ourselves we need not create a scene here, but we can give a back hit the same way they did to them. What would you say? ”

“Exactly” she agreed.

As soon as the flight touched down and taxied along the runway, stopped for the disembarkation. We made sure we were the first one to get out the aircraft. The young women at the front row gave a frown face at us. It’s not because we collided with her or something, but that she cannot allow us to go first. She considers herself more superior moreover we are in her country now. We waved bye to the air hostess and got down the aircraft gathering many frowned faces over us. We gave least concern towards it.

We had to board a Volvo bus next which would take us to the terminal. The entire bus was filled with passengers and it was so air tight that I literally felled suffocating, on top of that the strong aroma of the perfumes of these ladies made my head to twist.

We taught this would be our chance. We took a piece of cloth and covered our nose with that. These women’s understood that we are upon something. We thought speaking English is the only way that we could possibly show our hatred and anger towards those ladies as it is the most widely accepted language on earth and not knowing it is absolutely considered a drawback. So we decided to have a good rapport with each other and started to have conversations regarding the smell, flight, people and their disgusting aroma of the perfumes. We pretty much showed actions and talked slightly in a higher voice that the entire bus could hear. Others totally understood that we meant that group of ladies and they too understood that they are paying for what they did to that poor men’s who were in the flight for showing a racist behavior towards them. They nodded their head with shame and never came to argue with us since they dint know to speak English well!!!

This was the time that I realized how important English was and how it influenced the people around the world. Being the universal language it has showed its importance across the globe.

I am not trying to say that Arabs are mean people through my article but being educated doesn’t make you a global citizen and it does not mean it’s only Arabs but it can be any person belonging to any nationality. We need to see the world in one vision and treat everyone has humans keeping these evil thoughts behind and my friends keep those racist behavior apart, Come on it’s 21st century !!

And always have the confidence in yourself and believe in yourself, Never let anyone assault you in any form. They might be many instances happening around the world similar to this. Always keep in mind it’s your mind that makes you a winner or a looser.

Please Note: I did not mean to target or point out a specific community or do not say that they are always responsible for these inhuman behavior, it can be anyone.Understand.

Bedouin Market (Nairiyah)

After a long 7 hours drive all the way from Ad Dammam (740 Kms app) it was a great relief to reach our destination.The land actually surprised me,as we came closer and closer the deserts started to disappear and then come the short bushes arising from the soil beneath.When your cruising at a speed of 110 Km/hr it could be wonderful to see this transformation.Slowly it started to get higher and higher and the wind became cooler and cooler…… then what i saw was hays and vast farms spreading over acres of land,turning my concept of the kingdom upside down.I never knew the kingdom could have this much of greenery !!

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Its winter now, the month of December. The schools are shut down for the winter holidays what we don’t mention as the Christmas holidays because people rarely celebrate Christmas in a Muslim dominated country even if it is,It would be the expatriates. I live in the city of Ad- Dammam , Ash Sharqiyah, eastern province. By the mid of November you could feel the gradual drop in the temperature indicating the arrival of winter. By January the temperature would be as low as possible which could be 10-15 degrees even below zero degrees in place like Tabuk and Hail.People pack up there bags and move to the country sides to spend there vacations,especially places like Tabuk were it would even snow.A common sighting you will find during this time of the year.Transforming the hot humid deserts into cold deserts maybe even covered with snow. This vacation my  visit is to the smallest town in Saudi Arabia lying almost 150 kilometers to the northwest of Al-Jubail ,the industrial capitol of the Kingdom known as Nariyah or An Nariyah where i have never been before……….